


"Watching Kids and Getting the Guy"

by Shorty



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Nanny AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-24 12:05:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2580845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shorty/pseuds/Shorty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A How To Guide on Being a Nanny, written by Hinata Shoyo</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Watching Kids and Getting the Guy"

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my god. Oh my god this is the longest thing I’ve ever written. I know 10k doesn’t seem like a lot to some people but even though this isn’t the best thing I’ve ever written I’m so proud of myself oh my god. I’m so happy with myself I’m so glad I actually finished this go me!
> 
> Okay anyway. On to the real notes. All of my knowledge of nannies come from sitcoms like the nanny or jessie (which is a kids show so that probably has even less realistic nanny depictions than the nanny) so while I did some research I…didn’t really. Also as for kids like. I did a bit of research about when they start to walk/talk but thats it the rest is made up sorry for any major inaccuracies.
> 
> Title and summary? Whats that?? Ha. It’s. It’s the best I could come up with I don’t know how to summarize this.

There was sort of universal rule in the nanny business: don’t be too nosy about your client’s lives. If they wanted to tell you stuff, that was one thing, but don’t annoy them unless you want to be fired faster than a baby could make a mess in its clean diaper (and yeah, ok, Shoyo kind of added the last part, but still, universal rule).

Hinata Shoyo, despite being an amazing (and this wasn’t entirely self-proclaimed, either) nanny, was not good with that rule. At all.

It wasn’t like he broke the rule, per se. He didn’t ask any annoying questions or bug the families about their personal lives, and honestly, most of the clients he’d taken in his year and a half of working for the nanny agency lived incredibly boring lives, with incredibly boring reasons for needing to hire a nanny for the week or month they needed to do so.

But he _was_ a snoop. The easiest way, he had learned, to snoop was to look at pictures. You could tell a lot about a person by what they had framed on their walls, such as; family (several families seemed to have had a ‘surprise’ kid, given the fact that their other children were all way older than the baby or toddler Shoyo was nanny-ing), pets (he wasn’t a pet sitter, and while he wouldn’t have minded looking after dogs and cats as well as a kid, the agency stated that the family needed someone else to watch any pets, so most of the time the pets went to a daycare like place and Shoyo never saw them), travelling, and how boring they were (this one house had three picture frames still with the stock photo inside, two family photos of the mother, father, and child, and a million pricy looking paintings or professional looking photographs). 

There were other ways, too, and when you were practically living in someone’s house between work hours, and especially if the kid was so young they spent hours napping, you grew to learn how exactly to find the best info on the people to save yourself from becoming completely and utterly bored out of your mind.

(Not that Shoyo didn’t love being a nanny – he was strictly the type of guy who wouldn’t do something if he didn’t like it – but still, when a baby needs a two hour nap, you forgot your volleyball magazine, and you don’t know the channels on the tv, it could get a little dull.)

Still, he wasn’t completely and utterly terrible at follow the rule – and the times he did break it, no one seemed to notice (or at least, that’s what the fact that he was still employed made him assume). And, generally, his clients were so boring that his little bit of rule-breaking snooping was enough to sate any curiosity he had.

But, when he’s told that he’s going to be watching a kid who is the daughter of someone named Kageyama Tobio (which, in case you’re wondering, just happens to be the same name of a famous – at least in the volleyball world – genius setter who played for the Japanese national team, almost winning the championship while on the team, until two years ago when he mysteriously quite, and also happened to be one of Shoyo’s volleyball idols – after the Small Giant – and okay, yeah, there’s probably a bigger chance of the dude just having the same name as the volleyball player but still Shoyo can hope) he knows he’s going to have a hard time not breaking the rule in the biggest way possible.

…

A week after he’s told he’s going to be working for Kageyama Tobio (for an indefinite time period – which actually is great even if the guy doesn’t turn out to be a volleyball super start because being hired as a permanent nanny means financial stability and is awesome as long as the kid isn’t a brat and the parents aren’t jerks) he’s standing outside the very guys house.

He takes a deep breath – and okay, he might be dressed nicer than he usually is when he goes to meet clients but if this is the Kageyama Tobio he hopes it is then he wants to make a good impression, and even if it isn’t what’s the harm in looking nice – before he rings the doorbell.

A few seconds pass, long enough that Shoyo’s goes to ring the doorbell again, before the door swings open.

And yup. That is definitely volleyball player Kageyama Tobio.

Shoyo knows he’s not allowed to ask any questions or anything (despite how badly he wants to, how badly this is throwing him back into his early twenties when he idolized this guy because yeah the Small Giant was way cooler but he got to watch this guy’s matches _live_ and damn he wished he could be his setter) but he gives himself a few seconds to soak in the fact that he’s going to be watching one of his favorite volleyball players kids before he finally says, “Hello, my name’s Hinata Shoyo from the Karasuno Nanny Agency.”

Kageyama Tobio, Shoyo learns within seconds, has a very scary face. It is the kind of face that could make a baby cry.

“Oh. Um. Right.” Kageyama says, and he opens his door wider and lets Shoyo in. “Suzu’s upstairs asleep. Um. I can show you around, let you know what you need to do, and stuff?”

“That’s why I’m here, unless you work on a Saturday.” Shoyo laughed, and Kageyama makes a face that makes Shoyo think maybe he’s pissed him off, but the other man doesn’t say anything.

Kageyama leads him into the house, which is nice and neat but doesn’t look like it’s very lived in, and shows him first the kitchen (always the most important part for younger kids like Suzu, whose only seven months old, since Kageyama has to show him where all the formulas are and how to make them, and what types of baby foods she can eat, and stuff like that), and then the living room, which is by far the most lived in part of the house so far (granted he’s only seen the downstairs) with a couch and a tv and a play area set up for Suzu.

It’s when Kageyama is showing him the laundry room (which is important for two reasons and those are, 1: kids make messes, and 2: that’s where Kageyama keeps the diapers and stuff that goes along with diaper changing) that a soft wail drifts down from upstairs.

Kageyama goes stiff for a second, and then he’s practically running upstairs, and Shoyo is left between deciding to respect the man’s privacy or follow him upstairs.

He chooses the latter.

It doesn’t take him long to find the room Kageyama is in – for one, there are only four rooms upstairs, and one’s a bathroom, and for another, the babies still crying.

The room is small, and it only has a crib and a dresser and a changing table in it, but it’s nice enough.

Of course, these are all things Shoyo notices later, because as soon as he walks in the room – no, before that even – his full attention is on Kageyama, who is standing over the crib rocking his daughter with the softest look on his face, and the girl slowly stops crying, and her little hands reach up at Kageyama’s face and yeah Shoyo’s pretty sure his heart just melted because that might have just been the cutest thing he’s ever seen.

Eventually, Kageyama turns around with a calmed down Suzu in his arms. “You don’t mind if she comes with us when I’m showing you around…?”

Shoyo almost laughs, but he manages to just say, “If I mind kids I’d certainly hope I wasn’t a nanny.”

Again, Kageyama doesn’t laugh or smile or anything, and he leads Shoyo back downstairs. “I’d prefer if you didn’t go into the master bedroom. You shouldn’t need anything out of there or anything, so. I mean, there’s soap in the laundry room and her bath seats in there too, I’ll show you where, if you need to bathe her. If you ever run out of soap or something I keep more up in my bathroom so you can go in and get it if you need it but besides that don’t go in there.”

Shoyo nods (it’s not an unusual request at all). Kageyama continues to talk. “Also, upstairs in the other bedroom is an office. It’s not off limits or anything but there’s really nothing you’d need in there. And, um – oh shit. What do you do about food?”

“Oh, um, I can bring my own food? I mean, I can eat breakfast before I get here, and in your application you put down that you’d usually be home by six so I can eat after I leave, so that just leaves luch which is super easy to pack and bring.”

“Oh.” Kageyama nods. “If you want food though, go ahead? I mean, I guess I don’t really have a lot of food here – I’m not a great cook so a lot of its premade and stuff, but there’s some stuff you can eat without cooking.”

Kageyama leads him around the house for another half an hour, tells him what stuff Suzu needs, what stuff he does or doesn’t let Suzu do, tells him that he can watch the tv, the usual, and then when he’s done, he stands their way to awkwardly for someone in his own home, holding an adorably sleepy Suzu in his arms.

“Here, you should let me hold her.” Shoyo says, and Kageyama looks surprised and almost unconsciously pulls the baby closer to his chest.

“Just so she can be used to me, you know? You actually need to do it more for older kids, but at least let me say hi so she recognizes me.” Shoyo explains, and Kageyama nods and slowly, carefully, hands over Suzu.

“Hello.” Shoyo says, and yeah, he’s already reverted to baby talk but Suzu is absolutely _adorable_ so screw you. “Aren’t you so cute? I’m gonna be watching you while your daddy’s at work.” He coos over Suzu for another minute or so, and since she seems fine being held by him (he’d once watched a baby that screamed if it was held by anyone but its mother) he hands her back to Kageyama.

“You don’t want to ask me any questions?” Shoyo asks, and when Kageyama’s face gets sort of confused he clarifies with, “You know, like interview questions? What’s my background in child care and such?”

“But I hired you from an agency.”

“Yeah, but people still usually ask.” Shoyo shrugs. “It’s fine if you don’t, I just wanted to make sure before I left.”

“Oh.” Kageyama says. “No. I mean, your agency seemed reputable and stuff.”

“Yeah.” Shoyo nods. “So I’ll see you Monday at six thirty, right?”

Kageyama nods, and then Shoyo leaves, and it’s only when he’s driving home that he remembers that he just met his volleyball idol, which is actually weird because he figured he wouldn’t be able to get over that, and he had without even noticing it within the first few minutes of meeting him.

Kageyama seems pretty normal, though.

…

He’s there a little early on Monday – not early enough to inconvenience Kageyama but early enough to show him that he’s going to be on time for his job.

Kageyama lets him in, and the guys working on putting on a suit (Shoyo realizes he doesn’t know what Kageyama actually does – he probably had money left over from when he got endorsements and stuff as a volleyball player but that wouldn’t be enough to live on forever, plus babies cost a lot of money, but he just can’t imagine Kageyama in an office setting, despite knowing him for only a day).

“Suzu’s still asleep, she probably won’t be up for a while, I’m not even going to tell you you can do whatever because you’re a nanny and probably know what to do when kids are asleep or something.” Kageyama tells him, and Shoyo nods and sits there as Kageyama finishes up whatever it is he’s doing.

After a few minutes, Kaageyama goes upstairs, and Shoyo doesn’t follow him this time but judging by the fact that Kageyama doesn’t take anything up with him or bring anything down, Shoyo can guess the reason he went upstairs and it’s actually funny how cute it is to think of this gruff almost thirty year old guy kissing his daughter good bye.

“My phone numbers on a sticky note on the fridge, and I put our doctor there too, but I guess you probably have both of those numbers any way since I had to give them? But yeah, they’re there to be safe.” Kageyama tells him, fidgeting slightly. “Um. I should be home by six? And I have your number so I’ll call you if I’m not.”

“Okay. Have a good day at work! I’ll take great care of Suzu!” Shoyo said, flashing Kageyama a thumbs up, and something like concern crosses the taller man’s face but then he leaves and Shoyo is left practically alone in the house of a (ex)famous volleyball player.

He decides to do his usual ‘snoop without going through the person’s drawers’ bit, but he figures out fairly quickly that he has a problem – Kageyama has two pictures in the house. One, an old looking family photo that features an awkward looking teenaged Kageyama and two adults who must be his parents, and they’re all standing stiffly apart from each other and it’s actually really sad, so Shoyo moves on to the next photo. It’s of Suzu, only she’s a few months younger. She’s wearing this pretty little outfit, and even though you can’t see the full body of the person holding her, the hands obviously belong to a woman, a woman that has a pretty wedding ring on her finger.

This, Shoyo realizes, must be the mother of Suzu, and the wife (or maybe, since he hasn’t seen any trace of her in the house, ex-wife) of Kageyama. He finds himself increasingly disappointed by the fact that he can’t see anything but the woman’s hands.

A cry breaks him out of his thoughts, and he realizes that it’s probably already well after seven at this point, and so he goes upstairs to Suzu’s room.

“Hey, do you remember me?” he asks the girl, and she looks at him for a second before continuing to cry. He picks her up gently and rocks her. “I met you the other day, remember? I’m going to be watching you while your daddy’s at work, okay?”

She calms down eventually, and Shoyo takes her downstairs for her breakfast.

…

Shoyo’s playing with Suzu when Kageyama comes home – it turns out the little girl is very fond of animal toys.

She starts babbling happily when she sees Kageyama, reaching her hands up which brings a smile to the man’s face – however odd-looking that smile may be – as he bends down to pick her up.

“Your daughter is practically an angel.” Shoyo tells him, and Kageyama’s mouth quirks up. “She barely ever cries, is super sweet, and is always so happy! Is she always like this?”

“Ah, yeah, she’s-“ Kageyama looks down at Suzu, “You’re pretty good, aren’t you?”

Shoyo laughs. “I’m always sort of nervous on the first day – it totally sucks if the kid is a brat, or the parent too I guess, so it’s nice that Suzu is such a sweetheart.”

“I’m glad you like her.” Kageyama says, and Shoyo can tell he enjoys hearing Shoyo talk about his daughter.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay, Suzu?” he says, wiggling his fingers at the baby.

He then says good-bye to Kageyama and waves – and when Kageyama raises his left hand into a wave, Shoyo doesn’t see a ring.

…

Shoyo quickly falls into a routine – Suzu, it turns out, truly is a great child, and even though Kageyama isn’t very chatty, he’s nice and respectful and always texts Shoyo if he’s going to be home late.

The weather starts to get colder around when Shoyo first starts watching Suzu (which is what happens when October turns into November), so he finds a stroller in Kageyama’s garage (not that it was hard – besides some volleyballs and yard tools the guys garage is really bare). Kageyama lives in a place with a lot of sidewalks, and there’s a nice park nearby that both he and Suzu enjoy walking in.

Suzu actually just in general loved to be outside – which was good for Shoyo, who loved the same. 

Suzu starts to crawl within the month of Shoyo starting to watch her, which was actually amazingly adorable, and every time Kageyama came home she’d gurgle and start to scoot towards him which was, if possible, even cuter.

…

Two and a half months after Shoyo starts his job he realizes something – Suzu’s first birthday is coming up.

He figures it probably wouldn’t be too weird to bring her a birthday present, and he knows when her birthday is because he got all of the stuff Kageyama filled out so he knew like, her allergies and doctors and stuff.

So yeah. He doesn’t buy her anything extravagant, but still. 

Her birthday comes, and Shoyo brings his present when he goes to watch her.

“You can wait to open it when you have her party or whatever, I just thought I’d get her something.” He tells Kageyama.

“Party?” Kageyama says, which is. Yeah. Not the reaction he was going for.

“Yeah? Aren’t you like, inviting your family up…or your friends?” Shoyo asks.

Kageyama’s face confirms that no, he isn’t, and shit. Shoyo seems to have a knack for asking the wrong questions.

“Some of my friends got her stuff, but no, I wasn’t going to have a party.” Kageyama says, and he looks a little worried, like he’s failed some super important fatherly duty.

“Oh, well then, I guess me and her will open it up today.” Shoyo smiles, trying to put the taller man at ease as he takes the present back.

Kageyama looks like he’s going to say more until he sees the clock, which leads him into a hasty exit.

And yeah, it’s probably over stepping his boundaries, but when Kageyama comes home promptly at six o’clock, Shoyo has a couple of balloons and three party hats and most importantly, some cupcakes (if he had known that Kageyama wasn’t going to have a party he would have made them at home and they would taste much better than the cheap ones from the store will probably taste, but Suzu’s one so it’s not really the taste that counts).

Kageyama kind of stares at it all, and then he says: “Can babies even eat cake?”

Shoyo laughs. He laughs for a while, which is probably really stupid and could cost him his job but Kagyama just looks so _lost_ it’s hilariously adorable.

“She’s not gonna eat a lot of it, stupid. Don’t you have the classic ‘baby smudged their cake all over their face at their first birthday party’ picture? My mom has multiples of me and my sister.”

“I- I don’t.” Kageyama says, and there’s a beat of awkward silence before Kageyama speaks again. “I’ll go get the other presents.”

Kageyama comes back with a small stack of presents, and he sets them next to Shoyo’s present on the table.

Suzu’s already in her high chair, so Shoyo sets one of the cupcakes in front of her and surely enough its spread across her face in seconds.

(Shoyo may or may not take a million pictures of this because, seriously, he’s said it before, Suzu is the cutest baby in the world, and no he is not too attached to his client’s daughter.)

He also makes Kageyama open the presents – and Kageyama does this cute thing where he lets Suzu start the rip and god. Seriously.

The presents aren’t anything to exciting – a couple of toys or clothes or blankets from the friends Kageyama mentioned, Shoyo’s present (which was another toy so, yeah, it kind of seemed lame amongst the small pile of toys).

Shoyo insists he cleans up – the party was his idea, after all, and it’s not like there’s much to do but throw away the wrapping paper and wash the three dishes used.

He leaves that night really happy – even though Kageyama didn’t talk much, it was fun hanging around the guy, and it was fun seeing him interact with Suzu.

The taller mans whispered “Thanks” as he held a sleeping Suzu while Shoyo left still echoed in the back of his mind.

…

A few weeks after Suzu’s birthday, on a Monday, Shoyo’s walking up to the Kageyama household when the door swings open before he even gets there.

Now, there are two odd things about this situation – one is the fact that Kageyama has never opened the door before Shoyo’s knocked. And two, the more important of the two, Kageyama has a giant grin on his face (and it isn’t the creepy ‘I’m trying to be nice and smile at you but I’m not good at it’ one either, it’s an honest to god real, happy smile).

“Suzu said her first word yesterday.” Kageyama tells him, so proud it’s almost like he himself had won something (not like, winning a volleyball game proud, but still).

“Really?” Shoyo says excitedly, because how can you not be excited about something like this? “What was it?”

“Ah, come on, she’s up already, I’ll get her to say it for you!”

Suzu’s in her playpen in the living room, and she runs excitedly to the end of it when Kageyama and Shoyo enter the room. Kageyama kneels down and pick her up.

“Suzu,” he says, and Shoyo swears he’s never seen the stiff man look more relaxed or happy, despite the fact that the man always smiles when he looks at Suzu. “Say daddy.”

Suzu giggles a little before she talks. “Da! Da-da!”

“Yay Suzu!” Shoyo yells, clapping, and the girls smile gets even brighter. “Can you say Hinata? Hi-na-ta?”

Suzu just looks at him in confusion, and Kageyama lets out this adorable little snort.

“I have to go.” He says, and he puts Suzu down.

“Suzu, say bye! Say bye-bye daddy!” Shoyo says, kneeling down beside the girl, and for her credit, she does her best, coming out with a little ‘b-ba da!’.

“Yay!” Shoyo claps again, and he spends the next few minutes trying to get the girl to say his name (the closest he gets is ‘ha-da’) before the little girls eyes start to drift closed and he wonders if Kageyama got her up just to show off her new skill.

“You know,” Shoyo says to Suzu as he carries her upstairs to put her in bed, “Your daddy was waiting for me at the door to tell me. Does that mean I’m the first person he told? He seemed pretty excited to show you off.”

…

Most days with Suzu are easy – the girl is a sweetheart – but sometimes Shoyo’s reminded that the girl is still just barely a toddler.

Today is one of those days.

Suzu hates putting on winter clothes, but she also hates plain pea baby food even more, which is all Kageyama has (due to Suzu not liking it and never eating it, of course) so it’s up to Shoyo to go out and buy more and _no_ , he is totally not even a _tiny_ bit mad at his employer for not stocking up on baby food besides fucking _peas_ , thank you very much.

Suzu cries through putting on her clothes. She cries through the car ride to the store. She cries the entire time Shoyo’s buying the food and checking out which gets him several glares. She cries the entire way back. She cries as he takes off her warm clothes. She finally settles down to eat her food but then when he puts her down for a nap she cries through that, and the lack of her sleeping not only makes her more tired and cranky but makes him more tired and cranky too.

All in all, by the time Kageyama comes home he’s ready to go home and go to sleep.

“She’s going through her terrible two’s early.” He tries to joke to Kageyama, but it’s a really sucky joke, and his smile is sort of pained. Plus it makes Kageyama look panicked, and Shoyo is reminded once again how new this guy is at the whole ‘parenting’ thing, despite being kind of a natural at it. “Hey, I was just joking, don’t worry about it. She just had a rough day.”

He leaves, and he goes to sleep, and the next day he finds an envelops on his name on it in the fridge (and he laughs at how silly that is, the envelope in the fridge) with more than enough money to pay him back for the few jars of baby food he bought.

…

Suzu takes her first steps (her first completely and utterly by herself steps) on a Wednesday.

This is a good thing. Suzu was a bit behind on walking – not scary behind or anything, but most kids could take a few steps by their first birthday and hers was two months ago.

However, Kageyama was not home. It was two twenty seven on a Wednesday, and Kageyama wasn’t there to see her walk. Which was probably predictable – when you work all day, you’re bound to miss some stuff. But it’s kind of sad, because Suzu gets this look of wonderment on her face as she toddles a few steps before promptly falling on her butt.

Luckily, Shoyo manages to notice her walking and whip out his phone to video tape as much of it as he can, which is all of two steps and the falling.

He texts it to Kageyama in what is probably a very inappropriate manner for a nanny to text their client (way too many exclamation points, for one), but when Kageyama comes home and Suzu waddles over to him, Shoyo knows that the video was well received.

…

“Oh, Hinata.” Kageyama says one day as Shoyo starts to leave for the night. “I called your agency and stuff but I thought I should tell you too – in two weeks Suzu’s going to be at her grandparents’ house from Wednesday until the weekend, so you’ll only need to come one Monday and Tuesday.”

“Oh! That’s exciting for her – kind of lonely for me and you, though.” Shoyo smiles. “Are they your parents? The ones in the photo in the hallway?”

Kageyama sombers as much as he can (he doesn’t, actually, usually look somber, it’s just – it’s hard for a face perpetually caught up in grumpiness to truly ‘somber’). “No.”

“Oh.” Shoyo says, and shit, he accidentally brought up the left-them-and-or-dead mother, something he’d tried very hard not to do, and actually succeeded at relatively successfully. “Well, um, I’ve got to go- I’m meeting a friend for dinner, and I promised her I wouldn’t be late!” He says quickly (because how do you say to your employer, so sorry your daughter is going to visit the parents of you not here/dead wife?).

He turns and leaves so fast he misses the wrinkle that forms on Kageyama’s forehead.

…

It turns out that the week he has off he spends entirely bored, and entirely missing Suzu.

He ends up doing pretty much nothing that week – he catches up with some of the friends he doesn’t see often, but it’s not like they have work off too, so there’s really nothing to do until they get off. 

He goes down to Natsu’s college (it was just a quick train ride away), but she was swamped with school so it was basically him hanging out at her apartment while she either went to classes or worked on schoolwork.

So, when he walks into Kageyama’s home five minutes early on Monday morning, he swoops down and picks Suzu up with probably more excitement than a nanny should have. “Suzu! I missed you! Did you have fun at grammy and grampy’s?”

Suzu giggles, enjoying being bounced around by Shoyo. “Hnada, Hnada!”

“That’s right, it’s uncle Hinata!” he laughs, spinning her around a little.

“You call yourself uncle Hinata?” Kageyama’s confused voice makes him stop.

“Shi- Shoot. Sorry. Um. I can stop? That was probably really weird, right? Sorry.” He says, and if he wasn’t holding Suzu he probably would have fidgeted or rubbed the back of his neck or something. As it is, he shrinks closer to the ground.

“No. Um.” Kageyama’s cheeks go a little pink. “It’s fine. If you want to call yourself that. I mean. You do see her every day.”

“You seriously don’t mind? I mean, I could see why it would be weird. I’m the nanny, not her uncle or, well, or even your close friend or something.”

“You see her a lot.” Kageyama says again. “And, she likes you. It’s fine, really.”

“Okay.” Shoyo smiles, and Kageyama smiles a real smile back before leaving.

The warm feeling the smile gives him doesn’t leave Shoyo’s stomach for hours.

…

Eventually, the inevitable happens – it’s April, and it’s muddy out, and Suzu has long since gotten to running, so yeah, they run out of soap (which has been moved from the laundry room to the guest bathroom ages ago).

Which means Shoyo goes into Kageyama’s room.

The room itself is very spare – a bed, a dresser, some end tables. Nothing to exciting, which leads Shoyo to believe that the reason he was asked not to come into this room was because Kageyama is simply a private guy.

Until he sees the picture. It’s pretty big, and it has two women and Kageyama in it, Kageyama’s lips pulled into his awkward-but-real smile (Kageyama, Shoyo has learned in his almost seven months of working for the man, has several smiles. Among them, they include: trying-to-look-friendly-but-failing, awkward-and-forced, awkward-but-real, Suzu-is-adorable, and, terrifying.).

Kageyama looks younger but not _that_ much younger, and it isn’t really Kageyama that draws Shoyo’s eyes to the photo – it’s the two women. 

The first woman has light colorings – light brown hair, light brown eyes, light skin, etcetera. She has a pretty smile, though the crinkles by her eyes made her look older than she probably was, and Shoyo can’t help but think _warm_ as he looks at her.

The other woman looks a lot like Kageyama, or she would if Kageyama didn’t always look like he was sucking a lemon while thinking about his archenemy. She wasn’t in the family photo that Shoyo had seen ages ago, either, so she probably wasn’t Kageyama’s sister – unless she was disowned. But she looked so much like Kageyama, with the same blue eyes and dark hair, that they had to be related in some way. Plus, her eyes held the same softness that Shoyo has seen in Kageyama’s whenever the man looked at Suzu.

And, in her arms lay a baby who was undoubtably Suzu, even if it was a Suzu far younger than any Shoyo has known.

As Shoyo stands there staring at the picture, he becomes pretty sure that the brown haired woman in Suzu’s mother – even though Suzu looks almost exactly like her father, the shape of her nose and mouth are so much like the woman’s in the photograph, and Shoyo can even swear he’s seen the smile the woman wears on Suzu’s own face, as small and childish as it still may be.

Suzu calls for him – she can say ‘Hinata’ pretty clearly now, and sometimes she even says ‘uncle Hinata’ – and Shoyo realizes it’s probably not the best idea to leave a one year old that has a knack for running around dirty in a playpen she was probably smart enough to get out off.

So he runs downstairs, leaving Kageyama’s room and the picture of his probably-dead wife (because no one who looked that happy would leave their husband and their kid) behind.

…

Suzu is sick, which means she’s crankier but also that she’s sleeping much more, and since it’s just a cold and he doesn’t have to worry that much Shoyo ends up watching the volleyball match (the one that’s currently being recorded at his home right now, but it’s much better to watch it live anyhow) with the volume turned on low enough that if Suzu starts to cry he can hear it.

That’s how Kageyama finds him when he gets home – perched on the edge of the couch cheering quietly for the team he supports. 

“You like volleyball?” Kageyama’s voice pulls him out of the game, and he looks up in surprise. “Does that mean you- you know who I am?”

“Huh? Oh, shit, yeah? I mean, I kind of was really excited for this job because of it, you know? You were so awesome when you played, your sets were amazing! I always wanted to hit one!” Shoyo laughs. “But I guess I kinda forgot pretty fast. Or, not forgot, but it was put in the back of my brain? I don’t know.” He laughs again.

“So why didn’t you ever ask me about it?” Kageyama looks confused.

“You never told me about it? I mean, obviously I’m curious, but I’m not supposed to pry.”

“You’re curious about why I quit, right?” Kageyama says, a sour look on his face, and Shoyo lets out a small ‘duh’.

“I mean, you were an awesome player! You had a shot at the Olympics!” 

“My teammates didn’t like me.” Kageyama says, and Shoyo scoffs.

“What, that’s lame. I mean, maybe you aren’t the nicest person in the world, but you’re pretty awesome once people get to know you, and your sets were _amazing_.”

“Yeah, well, my team didn’t think so.” Kageyama scowls, and then he sighs. “It was my fault, anyway. And by the time I got the problem figured out it was too late to go pro again.”

“That sucks.” Shoyo says. “Hey, do you still play?”

“Yeah, with a neighborhood association.” 

“Me too! We should get our groups together sometime and play!” Shoyo says, already excited at the idea of maybe getting to hit one of Kageyama’s tosses.

Kageyama looks surprised, but then a smile spreads across him face (it’s close to his Suzu-is-adorable smile, and Shoyo marks it in the back of his brain as maybe his I-love-volleyball smile). “I’d. I’d like that.”

…

Kageyama actually is surprisingly insistant in setting up the game, and so a few weeks after they first talked about the idea, Shoyo and Kageyama’s associations meet up.

Kageyama’s team is – well. It’s amazing, and they haven’t even started playing. Nishinoya Yuu is on it – the same Nishinoya Yuu that almost made it to the Olympics. He’s standing with this scary guy named Tanaka, this sleepy looking guy named Ennoshita, and two other guys whose names Shoyo doesn’t catch. There’s also this giant – his name’s Asahi, and he is very cool, Shoyo can tell just by looking at him. Then there’s another famous player – Oikawa Tooru, whose team won nationals right before his knee gave out and he couldn’t play professionally anymore. He’s with this guy who’s introduced as Iwaizumi, and Shoyo doesn’t reckognize him from anywhere but he’s scary looking. There are a few other people in the back who aren’t famous or standing next to anyone famous so Shoyo kind of feels like jerk for not learning their names but hey, what are you going to do.

Shoyo’s team, by contrast, is not so imposing. There’s Suga-san from the nanny agency and his boyfriend Daichi, and Daichi’s friend Michimiya (the only girl on their two teams, apparently). There’s Kenma, whose Shoyo’s best friend, but he doesn’t play regularly – he watches or plays video games unless one of the other setters on the team doesn’t show. There’s Kuroo, Kenma’s boyfriend and the guy that drags the blond haired boy there, and Kuroo’s friend Bokuto, and Bokuto’s boyfriend, Akaashi. There’s Yamaguchi, Shoyo’s roommate from college, and Yamaguchi’s mean boyfriend Tsukishima. And then finally there’s Lev, Yaku, and Yamamoto, teammates from Kenma and Kuroo’s old volleyball team.

Daichi suggests they mix up and split into four groups, and Shoyo end up on Kageyama’s team, which is really great because honestly that’s the whole reason he wanted this game to happen. 

They play for hours – Kageyama and Shoyo figure out how to do this super cool spike (Kageyama was surprised in the beginning to find out that Shoyo was a wing spiker, and if Shoyo was younger he might have been mad about that) and they end up winning most of their games, even though at one point they go against Oikawa and Iwaizumi.

When they’re done for the day, the two associations agree to meet again.

As they’re gathering their stuff, Shoyo thinks of something to ask Kageyama. “Where’s Suzu, by the way? I mean, I’m her nanny, and I’m here…”

“She’s with her grandparents.” Kageyama says. “They usually have her one weekend a month – the third one, usually, but they didn’t mind watching her differently this time for this.”

“Oh. But if they already have her every month, why did sh go see them for a week a while ago?” 

Kageyama’s face gets this weird expression on it, and his voice sounds strained when he talks. “It was her mother’s birthday. So they wanted to see her.”

Shoyo thinks, and Kageyama leaves, that it’s really sad to spend the week of your wife’s birth without even you daughter for company.

It’s not until a while later that he realizes this is the first time Kageyama mentioned his most-definitely-probably-deceased wife.

…

Okay, so Shoyo humming ‘happy birthday’ under his breath may or may not be a way to tell Kageyama it’s his birthday, and it works – Kageyama asks why he’s humming it, he answers that it’s his birthday, and Kageyama goes, ‘oh’.

“How old are you going to be?”

“Twenty-seven.” Shoyo answers, and Kageyama actually drops the cup he’s holding (thank god it’s empty. And plastic). 

“I’m twenty-six.” Kageyama says, eyes wide. “I’m not going to be twenty-seven for half a year. You’re older than me.”

Shoyo is sadly kind of used to this reaction. He’s short and has a baby face, which leads to a lot of people assuming he is way younger than him.

Kageyama leaves, and that’s the end of that, at least until he comes back at night with three cupcakes.

“I figured, we celebrated Suzu’s birthday, and, well. Happy birthday, Hinata.” Kageyama says, and Shoyo swears the cupcake is the best one he’s ever eaten.

…

Kageyama takes the week off of work at the end of August, which means Shoyo also gets the week off.

As far as Shoyo can tell, they don’t go anywhere (there’s no signs of packing or unpacking or anything, and the fridge is just as stocked when he goes back as it was when he left), but he swears that Kageyama looks sad when he comes back.

(Shoyo’s never been very good at math, but it would make sense for this to be around when the probably-deceased mother would have become probably-deceased.)

He wonders how unprofessional it would be to hug Kageyama, and he thinks that, if he knew for sure it would make the man happier, he would do it, even if it cost him his job.

…

Out of all the things Shoyo’s expecting to happen on a random Thursday, Kageyama striking up a conversation is not one of them.

And yet, here they are, at 6:23 at night, and Kageyama’s asking him why he became a nanny.

Shoy wonders if maybe Kageyama has some sort of ulterior motive. Or maybe he learned that when Shoyo went into his room to get soap a couple of months ago he spent an unusually long time staring at the photo of him and the two women. Maybe he was worried that Shoyo was some sort of creeper, having learned that Shoyo knew who he was before ever starting to work for him, and was worried Shoyo was stealing stuff and selling it on ebay or something.

Shoyo stops himself before he can start getting into Yachi territories of worried, and think, maybe he just wants to know more about me, which gives him weird butterflies in his stomach which okay. Might be a little bad because you probably shouldn’t have weird butterflies in your stomach when you think about your client but whatever. The guy had a recently deceased wife, probably, and Shoyo wasn’t a jerk, so.

Yeah.

He should probably answer the guys question.

“Oh, well. I watched my sister a lot when I was younger, because she was ten years younger than me and my mom had to work late a lot, so I knew I liked watching kids, and when I was in college – I actually have a degree in sports nutrition – I started working at Karasuno as a summer job and I kind of. Kept working there? I’ve been working as a nanny for like. Eight years now. And I’ve been done with school for four. I guess it’s just easier sticking with what I know.” Shoy rambles. “You’re not doubting my credentials or anything, are you? Because I’ve been your nanny for more than a year and I’ll be honest I’d be a bit worried if that was the case.”

“No, dumbass.” Kageyama says, and then he looks a bit embarrassed and mutters a quick sorry before continuing. “I just was wondering. Like you said, you’ve been Suzu’s nanny a year and I don’t really know anything about you.”

“Oh.” Shoyo says, and his smile gets wider.

He doesn’t leave until almost eight.

…

It isn’t until after that day that Shoyo admits he might like Kageyama more than he should.

Honestly, it isn’t even that surprising – he’s known he was bi since high school, and he totally hero-worshipped Kageyama when the guy was still a famous volleyball player, and he’s thought that Kageyama was attractive since his first time meeting him (okay, granted, it was more of _adorable_ and that was exclusively when Kageyama was looking at Suzu but yeah. Kageyama was attractive).

(But Kageyama’s wife had only been dead for a year, probably, and Shoyo had only known him for a year, definitely, and Kageyama wasn’t even looking for a relationship, most likely, and it was dangerous to watch a baby on how little sleep Shoyo was getting thinking about this, factually.)

…

Everything’s going along swimmingly – Shoyo managing to hide his totally unprofessional crush, Kageyama actually talking to him and smiling, Suzu continuing to run and play and grow up and be adorable, Shoyo not bringing up Suzu’s mother, etc. – until Kageyama texts him one Friday an hour before he’d normally come home.

_Some coworkers asked me out for a drink, and I’ve been dodging them for long enough that I really should go. Do you mind staying later? I’ll pay you more of course and I should be back by 8 ish._

Shoyo texts back a _yeah that’s ok have fun_ because yeah that is okay he doesn’t have anything going on tonight anyway.

And everything is fine and dandy and Suzu goes to sleep easily and Shoyo ends up watching an old volleyball game and everything’s great-

And then Kageyama comes through the door at 8:15 drunk out of his mind. Like, stumbling-into-a-wall drunk (and it’s not like Kageyama is a clutzy guy either, so it was really weird).

“Wow.” Shoyo says. “I hope they didn’t let you drive home.”

Kageyama stumbles over and plops himself ungracefully and totally not Kageyama-like on the couch next to Shoyo. “They didn.” He says, head drooping.

Shoyo wonders if, in this situation, he just leaves now, or if he stays, because can Kageyama really take care of a child when he’s so drunk he can barely keep himself upright? They didn’t cover this in the training, that’s for sure.

And then Kageyama says something that wipes any thoughts from Shoyo’s mind.

“Suzu’s mom is dead.” He says, and suddenly it feels like the whole room is quiet – even the sound of the tv sounds distant, so all he can really hear is his own heart beat and Kageyama’s quickened breathing.

“I figured.” Shoyo says after a while, to cut through the uncomfortable silence. “You don’t have to tell me anything, though – you probably shouldn’t. You’re drunk.”

“No no no, shhhh.” Kageyama says, “I wanna. Tell you. I’ve never really. Told anyone.”

“You didn’t tell anyone your wife died?” Shoyo says before he can stop himself.

“She wassn. M’wife. She was. My cousin.” Kageyama says.

“What?” Shoyo chokes, because he’s not sure how he’s supposed to take that revelation.

“Wait I didn’t finish.” Kageyama glares at him. “My cousin’s _wife_.” Which totally wipes away the grossed-out-ness of the situation but also adds more confusion to the mix.

“So Suzu’s not your, biologically?” Shoyo asks, having at this point forgotten any of the qualms he had against learning this when Kageyama was drunk.

“She is.” Kageyama whispers.

And Shoyo’s not sure what he’s supposed to think- was it some weird affair, where Kageyama’s cousins wife got pregnant by Kageyama? And then when she died the father didn’t want the id and gave it to Kageyama? But then there were the grandparents – they might not want their grandkid staying with Kageyama- And then Shoyo remembers the girl in the photo in Kageyama’s room, the one who looked so much like Kageyama he tried to figure out how she was related to him, and the other woman who looked like Suzu, who Shoyo had figured was Suzu’s mom – and she probably was.

“Your cousin was a girl, wasn’t she?” Shoyo asks – it’s not even really a question, because he basically already knows.

Kageyama nods, and Shoyo notices he’s crying – not a lot, but there are tears in his eyes, slowly slipping down his cheeks. “They wanted to have a biological kid, and since I looked so much like Chi- like my cousin. Since we looked alike, they asked me to be the donor father.” He seems to have sobered up enough that his words weren’t slurred, but he still had a flush to his cheeks.

“Do you. Do you want to tell me how they died?” Shoyo asks quietly, and for a second he’s worried he’s gone too far – Kageyama telling him this stuff was fine, but him actually asking might be over stepping boundaries.

“Car crash.” Kageyama says. “I was-I was watching Suzu. It’s not something you’re hoping for, you know? To be watching your niece and then be told that her parents are dead?” He laughs, but it’s kind of a gross sad laugh that makes Shoyo’s heart break a little.

“At least Suzu got an awesome dad, right?” Shoyo says softly, and he only realizes how close he is to Kageyama when he goes to put a reassuring hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Not really, though.” Kageyama says. “I mean, she’d probably be dead if it wasn’t for the money her mom’s left behind and for you – I’m terrible with kids and animals and sometimes I feel like I’m just doing everything wrong.”

“Are you kidding me. Suzu adores you, so yeah, maybe you’re bad with _kids_ in general, but not Suzu.” Shoyo says soothingly.

“Oh god m’ drunk.” Kageyama slurs, holding his head in his hands. “I’m really fucking drunk.”

Shoyo laughs, because Kageyama’s revelation cuts through the serious tone in the room. “Do you want me to stay in case Suzu needs something tonight?”

“No.” Kageyama shakes his head. “I’m not. Not _that_ drunk.”

Shoyo bites back the ‘you seem that drunk’ that’s on the tip of his tongue, but he can’t really stay at Kageyama’s house if they guy doesn’t want him to, so he nods and stands up to leave.

“Wait.” Kageyama says, grabbing Shoyo’s wrist as he starts to walk away. “Thank for listening. I meant it when I’d said I’d never really told anyone before.”

“No problem.” Shoyo smiles, and Kageyama blinks slightly, and then he’s leaning in, and-

Shoyo isn’t really sure who initiated the kiss. Kageyama was the one who started to lean in, but Shoyo leaned in too, and the next thing he knew they were kissing each other and Kageyama was still holding Shoyo’s wrist and he tasted like alcohol and. And Shoyo was making out with his inebriated client.

One hundred percent sober Hinata Shoyo was making out with a definitely-not-sober Kageyama Tobio and this was really fucking bad.

Shoyo pulls away, and Kageyama lets go of his arm in surprise, and Shoyo’s running out the door with only a ‘sorry bye’ to explain himself.

Thank god the next day was the weekend.

…

By the time Monday rolls around, Shoyo has found a way to deal with the I-kissed-my-client-slash-volleyball-crush-slash- _regular_ -crush-while-he-was-drunk-and-he-probably-wasn’t-drunk-enough-to-not-remember problem, which was namely: call in sick and get Suga-san to fill in for him.

And yeah, it wasn’t the greatest plan in the world but at least it gave him some time to figure it out – he could probably milk a week out of Suga, and while he admittedly felt a little bad for milking anything out of the sweet older man he also felt really bad about facing Kageyama and the facing Kageyama thing actually made him feel like he was going to puke while the milking Suga thing just made him feel guilty so yeah. Obvious answer there.

Anyway, he’s already spent the weekend thinking about it, and he’s come up with… not a lot.

He doesn’t want to have to face Kageyama. Like, ever again. But he also doesn’t want to just abandon the poor guy – especially not after he’d opened up to Shoyo (even if the opening up had happened because he was drunk). And then there was Suzu, who he definitely didn’t want to leave – he’d gotten stupidly attached to her (the weakness every nanny probably went through at some point).

And so that’s how his Monday goes – him getting nothing done and worrying over the situation he’d stupidly gotten himself into.

…

His phone rings on Wednesday, which is not itself an extraordinary thing, except the caller id reads ‘Kageyama Tobio’, which is. Kind of. An extraordinary moment.

He doesn’t answer, but Kageyama leaves a message, and he debates whether or not to listen to it before finally clicking to listen.

“Hinata. It’s um. It’s Kageyama. Yeah. I know you’re sick but. You aren’t really, right? You’re just not coming because of.” There’s some rustling in the background and an awkward cough.

“Anyway. What I did was really, really stupid and I want to apologize to you. I’m sure you’re really weirded out and I’d understand if you didn’t want to work for me anymore, only Suzu really misses you – Sugawara, he’s nice, but she keeps asking where you are. And stuff. So, if it wouldn’t be too. Too weird. I’d really like it if you still worked for me. We could make it so you don’t even really have to see me or anything it’s just Suzu misses you and-

“God. I’m sorry this is a mess. I’m sorry if you really are sick too because then this won’t even make any sense. God. Um. Bye.”

The pit of worry in Shoyo’s stomach grows a little bigger – he can’t say no to going back now, not after Kageyama had to go and do this.

Still, he can’t help but feel a little happy at the fact that Suzu – _and Kageyama_ , he tries not to let himself think – like him that much.

…

He does end up going back – it takes the week and Suga telling him several times how much Suzu misses him (Suga’s seemingly pointed “And Kageyama too” is probably just his imagination, because there’s _no way in hell_ Suga could know, right?) – but yeah. He goes back.

And it is weird. It is. It’s stilted and awkward and Kageyama practically runs out the door every time he sees Shoyo coming and when he comes home Shoyo leaves immediately and Shoyo misses how it was before because it’s a lot easier to have a stupid school kid crush on the person you work for when there’s no chance of them liking you back but at least you’re _friends_ then it is to have a stupid school kid crush when you’ve kissed them and you want that and more but you aren’t even friends anymore.

…

December rolls around, and Shoyo is struck by a sudden revelation – one, that when combined with the fact that Shoyo has desperately been trying to start up a real conversation with Kageyama for the past two weeks, seems like the perfect way to Segway into a conversation.

“On my birthday in June you said your birthday was in six months, right?” Shoyo asks Kageyama during one of their now usual ‘pick everything up as fast as possible so we don’t have to spend any unnecessary time together’ sessions in the evening.

“Y-yes?” Kageyama says, and he looks surprised that Shoyo is talking to him after their long unspoken (ha, that’s almost a joke) agreement to never ever speak to each other outside of like, how Suzu was or something. “It’s this month. The twenty second. Why?”

“I was just figuring, since we celevrated Suzu’s and my birthday, we should celebrate yours too.” Shoyo smiles, and he can see Kageyama’s awkwardness melt just a little. “I’m glad I didn’t have to fight to get the day, though. I was afraid you’d clam up if I asked you.” He laughs sheepishly at that.

“You don’t have to.” Kageyama says, and the happy mood sort of drops a little.

“What do you-“

“You don’t have to. I mean, I. God, I never did apologize for it properly did I.” Kageyama scowls. “I kissed you. And that was bad. Being drunk is no excuse and I don’t want you to think you have to try and keep things normal between us or whatever because it was a really shitty thing for me to do and it’s probably really terrible for you, right? I mean, I’m essentially your boss and I _kissed_ you without asking you just because you’re nice and funny and that isn’t fair of me at all.”

Shoyo stares for a moment before speaking. “I kissed you back. And I was completely one hundred percent sober.”

“Yeah, but I still-“

“That’s your problem, isn’t it?” Shoyo says, looking at Kageyama for real for the first time since this conversation started. Kageyama had lost his scowl, and was now wearing a confused expression Shoyo didn’t want to call cute, but, well. It was what it was.

“You think it’s your fault, but it’s not.” Shoyo continues. “You were drunk. You were emotional – I mean, you were telling me about your dead cousin and her wife and how you got Suzu and stuff – and you kissed me, and okay, that wasn’t the most professional thing to do but I kissed you _back_ and I didn’t have any excuse at all besides the fact that I wanted to and really that means that I should be the one apologizing, not you.”

The silence sits heavy in the air for a moment. “You- You wanted to kiss me?”

Shoyo laughs (it’s not a happy laugh, more like a choked one, because. Well. If he wasn’t fired when the kiss happened then he’s definitely fired now). “Duh. Bet you wish you hadn’t asked me to come work for you again now, huh?”

Kageyama scoffs. “Dumbass,” he says, ignoring Shoyo’s squawk of ‘hey!’ as he continues, “I said you’re nice and funny.”

“What?”

“I said you are nice and funny.” Kageyama says again slowly, looking anywhere but Shoyo. “But I didn’t say that you were cute and that I’ve really wanted to kiss you for the longest time and that the real reason I wanted- no, needed – to apologize for that kiss was because I was using being drunk as an excuse to kiss you.”

“Oh.” Shoyo says, and a warm feeling spreads through him, getting rid of the last knots of worry that churned in his stomach.

“Kageyama?” he says, after they’ve stood there a minute, saying nothing. “Would you like to go out with me this weekend? I know a nice park where they have – where there are volleyball courts, and there’s this nice coffee shop there too.”

Kageyama’s cheeks get sort of pink, and he smiles awkwardly (a new smile, Shoyo thinks, maybe kind of like his I-love-volleyball smile, or his Suzu-is-adorable smile, but it would probably be better described as just a general I’m-really-happy smile, and Shoyo’s pretty sure that’s not just him projecting his own feelings onto Kageyama, or at least he hopes not). “I-“

Kageyama’s cut off from the sound of Suzu upstairs, yelling, “Da-da! H’nada!”

Kageyama laughs. It’s a little chuckle, really, but it’s a laugh, and it makes Shoyo’s smile grow even wider. “I think,” Kageyama says once he’s done, “we’ll need a rain check on the volleyball thing. Would it still be a – a date – if Suzu came?”

At this point, Shoyo’s cheeks are starting to hurt, but he still chuckles. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

…

(When Kageyama’s birthday rolls around a few weeks later, Shoyo’s there early – they haven’t quite yet gotten to the point where they’re staying over at each other’s houses since they decided to take it slow, but Shoyo has a key so he’s able to get in while Tobio is still asleep. No, really, he’s up at butt crack of dawn for this and while he probably would describe himself as a morning person but this is really early and Tobio better appreciate what he’s doing for him.

Yeah, but anyway, he’s got bags of food – since they’re dating now he figures he can try to stock up Tobio’s meager kitchen, something he’s been dreaming of doing ever since he first saw the guys pre-cooked meals taking up almost zero space in the pantry. Honestly, it’s lucky Suzu eats as well as she does, and that Tobio hasn’t died of some weird food poisoning yet.

Making the breakfast is easy as he’s _kind of_ taken it up to be Tobio’s personal cook as much as possible – he’s got to do _something_ with that stupid degree, right? – and Suzu wakes up while he’s doing so which is perfect because he needed her up anyway. Plus, Tobio’s kind of terrible at waking up, based of the few times he’s come over early like now, or the times he’s come over on the weekends at nine or ten and Tobio’s still been asleep. So that’s good.

By the time he hears Tobio’s alarm going off upstairs, he’s got food on the table, Suzu ready to start singing, and even a couple of balloons he’d found in his drawer at home – he’d used them for Suzu’s birthday, and even though he didn’t have any helium this time they were still kind of cool looking on the ground, plus Suzu seemed to like them, which was a bonus.

He hears Tobio plodding down the stairs – he had to know something was up, but the smell of the food and the fact that Suzu was out of her crib – and so Shoyo says to Suzu, “You ready? On the count of three. One, two, three – now!”

Suzu starts up her best rendition of the happy birthday song as soon as Tobio walks through the door, and Shoyo sings along with her, holding back a laugh at the sight of Tobio’s rumpled, pajama-d self.

“Happy birday, Da-da!” Suzu yells when they’re done, waddle-running over to Tobio and clamping onto his leg.

“This is way more than me buying you a cupcake on your birthday.” Tobio says as he picks Suzu up. “Thank you Suzu!” he says, diverting his gaze from Shoyo for a minute, and man is Shoyo happy that he can now openly star at the cuteness that is Tobio and his daughter without it being weird.

“Were we dating back then?” Shoyo says when Tobio turns back to him.

“I wanted us to be.” Tobio says, not without his whole face going red, and Shoyo totally loves the fact that Tobio does stuff like this now – is open and affectionate and god. Shoyo’s just really happy, okay?

Shoyo tugs Tobio down for a kiss, and then he pushes the taller man over to the table to eat, Suzu happily munching on what she can of the food.

As Tobio is getting ready to walk out the door, Shoy stops him. “Don’t eat anything for dinner, okay? Because I have something a lot bigger than a cupcake planned for tonight!”

“You really don’t have to cook for me all the time.” 

“Are you kidding me? Have you seen your kitchen? Have you seen the food that went into you before I started cooking for you? Besides, I like cooking, and it’s more fun cooking for more than one person.” Shoyo tells him. “Seriously though. If you come home not hungry I will break up with you. And I might take Suzu with me.”

A weird look crosses Tobio’s face, but then he smiles. “Fine. If I promise to come home hungry, you promise not to break up with me?”

“Deal.” Shoyo says, and-

Kisses can be used to close deals just as well as handshakes, right?)

**Author's Note:**

> What I like to imagine happens after the end of this fic:
> 
> -Shoyo quits being an official nanny after like a year of the two dating (kags won’t stop paying him so he quits and then Kageyama’s still trying to pay him and it’s very annoying) and becomes a sort of stay at home dad/unpaid nanny
> 
> -Suzu stops calling Hinata ‘Uncle Hinata’ and instead calls him dad (which totally doesn’t embarrass/fluster the two men no)
> 
> -They eventually get married and Suzu is the flower girl
> 
> -Hinata’s mom is very happy to get a granddaughter
> 
> -Their two neighborhood volleyball teams meet up all the time and eventually they just become one giant volleyball association
> 
> -When Suzu’s old enough to go to school Hinata finally gets a job as a sports nutritionist (you go Hinata way to use that degree)
> 
> -They all live happily ever after and there’s no more sad stuff and no one else dies and they all live into a ripe old age yeah
> 
> Yes, I killed off two women to give Kageyama a child simply because I wanted him to be the bio dad but also prefer to imagine him as a homoromantic asexual I am not proud of what I’ve done (but also please hc him as this with me).
> 
> At twenty six would you have a stable enough career to support a child? No! Probably not! Plus time phrase wise he would be twenty five when he got her! Wow!
> 
> Also don’t ask me what Kageyama’s career is? And I totally stole the idea for Hinata’s from


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